1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image transmission apparatus capable of transmitting image data to a plurality of transmission destinations.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an image transmission apparatus provided with a multi-address transmission function of transmitting image data to a plurality of transmission destinations. Many of such apparatuses have a destination table, a one-touch key, or another means for registering transmission destinations in advance, which enables a selection and specification of a plurality of destinations from these pre-registered transmission destinations for multi-address transmission.
Further, there is also known an image transmission apparatus provided with a multi-protocol multi-address transmission function of transmitting image data to a plurality of addresses using respectively different protocols such as an electronic mail (E-mail) and a file transfer (File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-352439). The image transmission apparatus provided with the multi-protocol multi-address transmission function can register user authentication information such as a username and a password used in a communication protocol for each transmission destination in the destination table or the one-touch key in such a manner that the authentication information is associated with the corresponding transmission destination information.
Further, there is also known an image transmission apparatus provided with an “each-time authentication transmission function” (also referred to as “manual authentication transmission function”). According to the each-time authentication transmission function, for multi-protocol multi-address transmission, every time an image transmission apparatus transmits image data to each destination, the image transmission apparatus prompts a user to input authentication information (username and password) for that transmission destination. Such an image transmission apparatus displays a user authentication information input screen for an input of, for example, a username and a password before the transmission, and transmits image data after the user inputs the authentication information. Generally, a destination located at a Server Message Block (SMB) server and a destination located at an FTP server require different authentication information for each destination due to, for example, different authentication mechanisms allowing an access to the server for each server as a destination. For multi-protocol multi-address transmission in which such servers are set as destinations, the image transmission apparatus displays an authentication information input screen every time the apparatus transmits image data to each destination. Thus, this should be followed by user's operation of inputting authentication information for each destination.
Since each destination requires different authentication information, a user has to input correct authentication information for each of a plurality of destinations. However, it is difficult for a user to input correct authentication information for all of the destinations, and an input of incorrect authentication information for a destination leads to a failure in the transmission.